Mac Mini, or a budget dektop PC

[ID811717]

Can Mac Mini handle WoW on medium settings, doing only open world content and 5-man dungeon runs?

[Nellah]

Yes, but you'll get far more mileage out of a PC for the same price:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($68.39 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 470 4GB Red Dragon Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $556.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-30 09:24 EDT-0400

(This is just an example and is probably not 100% optimized, but is in every way better than the Mac Mini spec-wise.)

[Akainakali]

Can Mac Mini handle WoW on medium settings, doing only open world content and 5-man dungeon runs?

Apple has not updated the mac mini at ALL in something like 2-3 years now.

Given the lack of a discrete GPU, I really couldn't recommend one for gaming regardless, but given the enormous amount of time since the hardware was last updated, I doubly can't recommend one.

One other possibility would be to get a small form factor PC and "hackintosh" it. Since mac's use essentially standard PC hardware, it is possible to get one to boot OSX. If you pick your hardware carefully, it can be quite painless, but if you don't it can be a nightmare.

This is a good place to get started.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/

[Kagthul]

Its actually been updated fairly recently... and made LESS powerful.

They swapped out the full powered laptop chips with Core-M chips.

The Mini is a good media consumption/daily computing machine, but nothing else. (Well, they make great HTPCs as well).

[Deleted]

As mentioned above - the Mini is in a state of severe neglect at the moment. If you're after a PC with a tiny footprint, you may want to look into an Intel NUC instead.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...-overview.html

For games; ideally choose a model with an "Intel Iris" or "Intel Iris Plus" GPU.
(Note: Many NUCs are sold without RAM and HDD/SSD - those will need to be purchased separately)

[Akainakali]

Its actually been updated fairly recently... and made LESS powerful.

They swapped out the full powered laptop chips with Core-M chips.

The Mini is a good media consumption/daily computing machine, but nothing else. (Well, they make great HTPCs as well).

It hasn't been updated since October of 2014, so I'm not sure what you think was done.

[Deleted]

I suggest to look on some buy and sell websites for a cheaper price available.

[Akainakali]

2.5 years ago could be considered somewhat recent...

Translating computer terms into human ages, at best it would be shopping for a flashy sports car, if not checking condo prices in florida.

[Deleted]

I'd recommend checking out snazzy labs on youtube (e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZU9KD2YESQ ). He typically does Hackintoshes, but they provide a good hw comparison.